— Deb Hall Lefevre, the longtime tech exec who was most recently CTO at Starbucks, announced her retirement on Sunday in a LinkedIn post.
Hall Lefevre resigned from Starbucks last month, according to a Sept. 26 report from Reuters, which cited a memo sent to staff about her departure.
The move came amid layoffs and various tech-related changes at the Seattle coffee giant.
“After an incredible journey leading technology and digital transformation across some of the world’s most iconic brands, including Starbucks, Circle K/Couche Tard and McDonald’s, it’s time to step into retirement,” Hall Lefevre said in her LinkedIn post.
“As I turn the page, I look forward to more time with family, continuing my tech and board work, and cheering on the next generation of leaders shaping the future,” she added.
Hall Lefevre, who was also an executive vice president, joined Starbucks in 2022. She previously spent more than 16 years at McDonald’s, where she was a corporate vice president and CIO, leading the fast food giant’s technology and digital commerce strategy. She was also EVP and CTO at Circle K Stores.
Ningyu Chen, who was senior vice president of global experience technology, is now interim chief technology officer at Starbucks.
Starbucks last month announced plans to lay off around 900 non-retail employees and close underperforming stores mainly in the U.S. and Canada. Starbucks previously cut 1,100 corporate workers in February.
Under the leadership of CEO Brian Niccol, the former Chipotle CEO who joined the company last year, Starbucks is making a bevy of technology tweaks as it tries to curb slumping sales.
— Lindo St. Angel, vice president of hardware for Amazon’s Lab126 devices group, is departing at the end of the month. Retuers first reported the news.
St. Angel joined Lab126 in 2010. The business unit, based in Silicon Valley, launched in 2004 and helped develop Amazon devices such as the Kindle Fire, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and other hardware.
— Mark Jewett joined New York City health data company Komodo Health as chief marketing officer. Jewett was previously a senior vice president at Informatica and CMO at SmartRecruiters. He also was a SVP and co-interim CMO at Tableau, and spent 15 years at Microsoft in various leadership roles.
Founded in 2014, Komodo Health reached a $3.3 billion valuation in 2021. The company helps healthcare stakeholders integrate data and generate insights related to treatment, research, and more.
— Nancy Mounir joined Oracle Cloud Infrastructure as a vice president leading security programs and platforms.
Mounir previously spent more than 12 years at Microsoft, most recently as a senior director and chief of staff overseeing the company’s Secure Future Initiative.
In a LinkedIn post, Mounir said she is “looking forward to a great journey of learning, innovation and growth with the Security Platform team!”
She added: “Extremely grateful for my time at Microsoft and could not be more proud of what we accomplished together over the years!”
Mounir initially worked at Microsoft from 2012 to 2015 in supply chain, and left to spend a year at Amazon working on advertising and accounting teams. She returned to Microsoft in 2016.
— Priya Vaidyanathan took a new role at Microsoft as director of product and design for Microsoft’s AI skilling platform. Vaidyanathan returned to Microsoft in 2020 after two previous stints and was most recently a group product manager. She previously founded a mealkit startup called SnapCurry and was a senior technical product manager at Amazon.
“This next chapter is about helping people everywhere gain the skills and confidence to grow with AI, creating opportunity, resilience, and impact at every level,” she wrote on LinkedIn.
— Jim Chi was named executive director of Oregon Startup Center, which is going through a relaunch, according to Portland Business Journal. Chi is also president of Oregon Sports Angels and is a longtime product management leader.
